ASRock X58 Extreme3 Review – Introduction
bluetooth 15 Sep 2010
ASRock never failed to surprise us. Although there are many high end X58 boards out in the market, the ASRock X58 Extreme3 is simply not just another X58 board in the market with high price unused features. What ASRock X58 caters to a price conscious group and wants the best in terms of features and overclocking.
Today, we take a look at the ASRock X58 Extreme3. This board was released sometime ago but it still remains as one of the most sought after boards. The ASRock X58 Extreme3 comes with True 333. That is USB 3.0, SATA3 + eSATA3. Most importantly, ASRock True 333 series motherboards can run the PCI-E for VGA card, SATA3 and USB 3.0 at full speed together simultaneously. Some boards aren’t designed to be so, impairing the performance as it can only run half speed when the other uses the PCIe bus.
This board unlike other manufacturers supports the C.C.O., which stands for Combo Cooler Option, is another exclusive hardware design on ASRock boards. C.C.O. provides the flexible options to adopt different CPU cooler types and matches your socket LGA 775 / LGA 1366 CPU cooler in the respective holes. Once again, ASRock has successfully expanded the utilization of PCB by the exclusive C.C.O. design. With the exclusive fan design, the Cool Heatpipe can dissipate heat from CPU power mosfet and northbridge rapidly and make your system running much cooler.
The board supports the Gulftown 6 core processor. With the help of DuraCap, it gives the board a longer lifespan. The V8 power phase design is used on board for better stability. On top of that, this board features tri channel memory supporting DDR3-2000 (OC). It also supports both CrossFire X and SLI.
Multimedia wise, the board has a 7.1 CH HD Audio (VT2020 Audio Codec with QSound), SRN 110dB, THX TruStudio Pro™, Premium Blu-ray audio support. THX TruStudio PRO™ solution ensures you the premium audio quality, effects and features for PC systems equipped with onboard audio. For instance, the TruStudio Surround technology expands your stereo content into surround sound; the TruStudio Crystalizer technology restores the compressed sound source and can let you hear every detail in riveting surround sound. Combined with the THX TruStudio PRO and the ASRock high performance HTPC system, you will be assured to enjoy a rich variety of PRO gramming and be entertained by a better way!
As part of the feature set, the board supports 1 x Powered eSATAIII/USB Connector, 2 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s connector, 2 x USB 3.0 Ports. Other nice feautres include Dr Debug, Smart Swith Design : Power / Reset / Clear CMOS Switch with LED, ASRock Instant Boot, Instant Flash, OC DNA, Multi-Speed Fan Control, OC Tuner, IES, Good Night LED. It also supports EuP / ErP. EuP/ErP stands for Energy Using Product, was a provision regulated by European Union to define the power consumption for the completed system. According to EuP / ErP, the total AC power of the completed system shall be under 1.00W in off mode condition. To meet EuP / ErP standard, the EuP / ErP ready motherboard and the EuP / ErP ready power supply are required. (The EuP / ErP ready power supply must meet the standard of 5v standby power efficiency is higher than 50% under 100 mA current consumption.).
